STAR TREK
MIRI

From Wikipedia:

"Miri" is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, that was first broadcast October 27, 1966, and repeated June 29, 1967. It is episode #8, production #12, written by Adrian Spies and directed by Vincent McEveety. The planetary exteriors were shot on the set used for fellow Desilu series The Andy Griffith Show.

Overview: The Enterprise discovers an exact duplicate of Earth, where the only survivors of a deadly plague are some of the planet's children.

More here.

I hate this episode. Seriously. I mean yeah, I'm a total Star Trek nut and all, but I really fucking despise "Miri." This is significant. There is only one other Trek episode I hate, the third season vomit bucket called "And the Children Shall Lead." Can you see any connection? Yeah, that's right: it's the children.

Generally, I like kids just fine. Hell, I even taught high school for six years, and I loved my kids. Most of them anyway. Rather, the problem I have is with child actors. Not my child actors, mind you, the freshmen and sophomores I taught back in the day, many of whom I managed to coach into some good acting work for the stage. The child actors I hate are on screen.

Look, it's not really their fault. Acting is damned difficult. You've really got to understand yourself and human relationships, and that's something children are simply not emotionally or psychologically developed enough to do. I mean, acting is hard enough for adults, but virtually all children are in waaaay over their heads when it comes to realistic drama. Add to that the way that Hollywood writers tend to pander, shamelessly playing toward adults' base nurturing instincts in vile ways, mythologizing childhood in a filthy slimy "Kum Bah Ya" meets "Pass It On" way.

This is why Wesley Crusher is a cancerous sore on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Anyway, "Miri" does have a few notables. Like the Wikipedia article mentions, they shot it on the Mayberry set. It's the first "parallel Earth" episode, which, in spite of the failure of "Miri," ended up being a pretty cool story formula for Trek--Nazis and mobsters and gladiators are coming in the second season! And we get to see for the first time McCoy racing against time to cure a disease and save the day.

None of this, of course, saves "Miri." It's just awful. You really ought not watch it.



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